Beneath The Skin
by Sovenxas
Summary: How is it possible for one to experience friendship, when one completely lacked emotions... completely lacked a heart?  That being the case, Axel never would of imagined that HE would actually experience friendship.  That was, until, Roxas came along.


**Okay so this is completely irrelevant to the story and all but, you know in the part in Twilight town, 6th day, when Axel appears and threatens to destroy Roxas if he rufuses to go with him' and just as he is about to attack roxas time halts and he freezes?**  
**Well I couldnt resist saying at that moment: "Let's molest Axel whilst he's frozen. Where's the 'molest' option?"**  
**Unaware that my mother was standing behind me the entire time. I received a strange, blank look and she walked away without muttering a word. I think I may of scarred her D:**  
**Yep, you're gonna sleep better tonight knowing that.**

**ANYWAYS, a little warning before you read this fail of a story, it was created as a "Short Story" as an English assesment. But, being the unorganised, oblivious doofus I am, I completely forgot about the assesment, and would've failed to do it in generally if not for one of the girls in my class talking about it in the period right before English. **  
**Needless to say my reaction was something like; "oh shi-" and from then on I had approximately 26 minutes before the bell went for English, and, being the super awesome at getting stuff done right before it's due, I somehow managed to come up with... _this._**  
**I had to attempt at explaining it in a context so that my teacher would have SOME form of knowledge as to what the plot's about, but with the limited time I had it was kinda hard to do that :/**  
**Also, as some of you might notice, the plot's based mainly off KH Days, whilst being HIGHLY modified.**  
**This ff contains a crap ton of contradictions and things that'll make you think "dude... that makes no... what is this I don't even...", but bear with me ^^;**

**Well enuff of my excuses and on with the shitty ass story, enjoy.**

**Oh wait one more thing, MERRY CHRISTMAS Y'ALL~! :DD **  
**May the creepy fat pedophile guy in the red suit bring you tons of joy and happiness... **  
**God he's gross. I mean, "he sees you when you're sleeping" that's just...urgh...**

* * *

In a world where darkness easily took over those with weak hearts, where the darkness constantly came to life in different forms of evil, where those with strong hearts filled with light would risk losing themselves to the depths of darkness to protect others by attacking those forms of evil, a 'miracle' occurred.  
In the world this 'miracle' took place in, darkness was incessantly spreading. As the days passed, thousands of citizens lost their hearts , and once you had lost your heart to the darkness, it was forever gone, lost in the realms of shadows, and whatever form of new life it took would lose all emotions and feelings it once had. They called these forms of life; Heartless.  
Those that had hearts full of determination, bravery and strength, were transformed into creatures of darkness that took human form. These heartless were known as; Nobodies.  
Feared by many, the Nobodies were known to have immense power, and could even control lesser heartless, who, not only had no hearts, but had no minds to think for themselves, they only acted on the whim of darkness without knowing what they were doing... But Nobodies, they were different.  
From the memories they held of their times as 'Somebodies', they were able to think for themselves.  
They learned to work together, and eventually joined forces, developing into what shortly became every civilian's worst nightmare - Organisation 13.  
They would release heartless in towns, causing havoc everywhere.  
Kidnappings and disappearances could almost always be blamed on Organisation 13.  
But, where there is dark, there is also light, and there were certain residents that took it upon themselves to try to eliminate the Organisation.  
One of these residents, a cheerful, brave, and well-known hero who went by the name of Sora, was perhaps one of the greatest heroes, giving rays of hope to everyone he met, hope that one day the world would be free of heartless.  
It is needless to say that everyone who knew Sora was devastated when they found out that he had been attacked by the darkness, and had gone missing.  
What no one knew however, was that when Sora had been attacked by the darkness, it had temporarily taken over his heart, and in the process, created Sora's own Nobody.  
No one knew what had happened to him once he had disappeared, and no one knew that the blonde, spiky haired boy that walked dully and expressionlessly through town after town in a daze , happened to be that very hero's Nobody.  
And who knows what would of happened to the newly born Nobody, if the mysterious blue-haired Organisation member hadn't stumbled across him one day and taken him in.  
Who knows what would of happened if the 'miracle' hadn't occurred.

Axel sighed and took another bite out of his sea-salt ice cream apathetically and stared at the pinkish, orange sky of Twilight Town.  
It had been a whole month since the red head had last seen his partner and, eventual best friend.  
He had never expected to befriend the short, spiky haired blonde at first, seeing as he didn't have the heart, quite literally, to be able to make _actual_ friends. None of the members of the organisation he happened to be a part of had hearts.  
The majority of them remembered what it was like to have emotions when they were 'Somebodies', so they acted them out when felt necessary. But none of them truly felt a thing.  
Needless to say, Axel was the same. He couldn't feel an inch of 'true' emotions towards anything.  
That was until, Roxas came along.  
It had been a relatively slow and tedious day until the young boy had first made his appearance, under Axel's superior, Saix's arm with a blank expression on his face.  
Axel gave Saix a puzzled glance before returning his gaze towards the boy.  
As if reading his mind, Saix explained the appearance of the boy with a monotone voice "Axel, this is Roxas, a new recruit," he gave the boy a gentle push towards the red head, who was still staring at the boy in bemusement, "he will be your partner starting from today."  
And with that, the blue haired man summoned a black, eerie portal and disappeared into the darkness.  
After finishing his examination on the young boy's appearance, Axel beamed confidently at the newcomer, who stared back at him warily.  
"So, Roxas huh?" placing his hand on his hip in a cocky manner, the coy red head continued "you don't look like someone who'd be a part of 'the organisation'… aren't you a little too young to be working with big, scary guys like us?"  
Roxas looked up at his new partner, his impassive face suggesting that he was unaffected by the taller man's deride.  
When Axel failed to receive a reply, he shrugged his shoulders and began walking towards the notice board, to see what his daily "mission" would be and beamed again when he realised where he would be working.  
"C'mon Roxy, you don't mind me calling that do you? It really suits that pretty face of yours, which, might I add, would be a lot more appealing if you let loose a little expression I like to call; a 'smile'!"  
Axel could've sworn he saw the flicker of what might have been a scowl on the young boy's face, before the emotionless face returned. Axel sighed and opened a portal.

Axel clapped as the blond boy swung his Keyblade at the last of the enemies.  
"Bravo, bravo! Very good for your first day of work"  
With his partner still panting, Axel took it upon himself to swing his arm playfully around the young boy's shoulder.  
"As a gift for your very first day as a member of the almighty Organisation twel- Ah! sorry, it's thirteen now" With this he smiled at the ever expressionless new recruit, "I'm going to show you something really nice!"  
"Does it taste good?" Axel asked as he lazily rested his head against the ground and set his crossed legs over the ledge of the gigantic clock tower.  
Roxas hesitantly took a bite of the icecream, and looked up in surprise at the red head.  
"It's salty… but sweet"  
Axel jerked his head up in amazement at the sudden progress the boy had made in terms of communicating so fast that a splodge of ice cream managed to settle itself upon his nose "You spoke?"  
A short snicker, followed by a burst of laughter erupted from the young boy's mouth as he took note of the dripping blue ice cream on his partner's nose.  
Axel blinked in puzzlement until the ever grinning boy tapped his own nose to alert his red-headed companion of his appearance.  
As Axel wiped the ice cream from his face, a grin spread across his own face, and before he knew it, Axel found himself laughing too.  
After that, spending the rest of their evenings after completing missions became somewhat of a tradition between the two partners.  
They would spend hours on end sitting on the ledge of the clock tower in Twilight Town, eating sea-salt ice cream, talking about silly, pointless things.  
And before they knew it, they were best friends.

Axel cherished the young boy, who had this charm about him that made Axel feel like he actually _had_ a heart. The way they laughed together, high fived each other after completing a mission, the way the boy seemed to look for Axel's guidance when things were 'bothering him', or when he felt 'curious' about something. The memories he had of his time as a Somebody, when he actually could FEEL emotions, made him believe that there was an untouchable bond between him and his partner. Something he had never had with any of the other organisation members, who noticed the change in Axel themselves.  
Ever since the new recruit had shown up, he had begun to show more _false_ emotions.  
Though they knew it weren't possible for Nobodies to feel anything, it unnerved them to see the red-headed man show all the signs that he did, in fact, have a heart.

But alas, all good things must come to an end.

And Axel's world seemed to shatter the day he learnt that Roxas had been reunited with his Somebody.  
Axel felt a fierce anger boil up inside him for the first time in his 10 years of being a Nobody.  
How dare this boy take away the one thing Axel actually cared about.

So, the distressed man did the only thing he could think of doing without causing any harm to Roxas and his Somebody.  
He kidnapped the boy's best friend, thinking that if he did, it would bring out enough rage and sorrow to darken the boy's heart, turning him into a 'heartless' and ultimately causing Roxas to be reborn.  
So there he stood, hand tightly gripped around the squirming girl's arm.  
"Let go of me!" She yelled fiercely as she pitifully attempted at releasing herself from the man's grasp.  
"You and I have something in common Kairi," Axel smirked in a dark manner "We both miss someone we care about"  
"What would you know?" she hissed angrily.  
"You've been living on this island for about a year now correct? You want to see your best friend. He's been looking for you, you know"  
Axel frowned.  
"But the thing is, your little friend is holding _my _friend captive, which makes me very sad, so let's make a deal then shall we?" he yanked the young girl closer towards him, looking her dead in the eye.  
"If you can get your friend to release my friend, I _promise _me or my Organisation buddies will never bother you and your friend ever again."  
The girl known as Kairi frowned at him sceptically "I don't trust you"  
Axel put his hand to his cheek in mock horror.  
"You don't trust me? Axel of organisation 13?" he pretended to look thoughtful for a moment before adding "That's probably a wise choice"  
"Yeah no kidding" the girl said bitterly "Now tell me where Sora is!"

Axel shook his head dismissively "All in due time my friend. Now tell me, do we have a deal?"

"Hey you!"  
Axel peered over his shoulder lazily, ice cream almost falling out of his mouth as he realised who had called out to him.  
"You're the one that kidnapped Kairi right?" the boy yelled out.  
"Ah so you're the one they call 'Sora', huh"  
The boy clutched the weapon he held angrily "Yeah that's me," he took a battle stance "Now tell me where my friend is or else I'll beat you and your 'Organisation' flunkies to a pulp!"  
Axel chuckled bitterly as the brunette standing before him scowled at the red head with fierce determination in his ocean blue eyes.  
"That's right, _he_ gave me that exact look when we first met"  
Confusion flickered across the enraged brunette 's face before the scowl returned.  
"I'm not falling for your mind games, Clown!"  
The red-head sighed.  
He didn't have bad intentions on kidnapping the boy's best friend. Hell he _knew_ what it felt like to lose someone you 'cared' about… not that he cared about anything… he didn't have a heart after all.  
But, his ex-partner, the one the boy standing before him took away from him (subconsciously or not), made him feel like he DID have a heart, and all the red-head knew was that he wanted to feel that way again. He had figured that if he kidnapped Kairi, the boy called Sora would track him down, and maybe, just _maybe_ would be able to get through to Roxas. Wake him up or something. That was the best idea Axel could come up with, and although it seemed like a long shot, he was determined to at least give it a shot.  
But now that he had met Sora, he suddenly felt like the chances of him getting his best friend back had decreased immensely.  
"Not telling huh?" the boy showed a grim smile, and let out a roar as he launched forward suddenly, attempting to attack Axel, who countered the attack with his trademark weapons, flaming Chakrams.  
"I'm sorry I took Kairi" Axel muttered whilst blocking Sora's rapid blows.  
Tears filled the young boys eyes and his attacks increased in power.  
After what seemed like an eternal battle, the brunette cried out "ENOUGH!" before swinging his weapon to collide with Axel's head, who failed to block the attack, and went flying.  
He crashed to the ground with a hard impact, and blood streamed down the man's regrettable face.  
Sora came running over to the injured man, tears streaming down his angry face. "Argh why am I crying?"  
Axel smiled gently at the brunette."Because a part of you really loves me"  
Sora stared at the man in shock.  
"What part of me could possibly love the man who took my best friend from me?"  
The red -head laughed weakly "You're such a hypocrite! You took _my_ best friendaway from _me"  
_He then stared at the boy seriously, "But, I'm sure he would be proud to call you his 'other'"  
The boy continued to stare at him with his tear stained face in confusion, and flinched when the dying red- head put his hand gently to Sora's face, caressing it slowly for a short moment whilst saying with gentle eyes "He made me feel like I HAD a heart, and somehow, so do you. So I suppose I can be content with this…"

Sora's expression changed for a moment.

What had once been a confused and startled expression became a loving, calm one, before returning to the glare it contained earlier.  
He raised his weapon above his head.

"E-enough of this!" he stammered before bringing down his weapon for the finishing blow.

As soon as the intense battle had finished, an overwhelming sadness fell upon Sora, following him throughout the rest of his journey.  
He seemed to have lost the ability to smile.  
Even after he had been reunited with Kairi, the sorrow remained.  
Sora didn't know why they persisted, but what Axel had said unnerved him.  
It wasn't until he met Saix, who taunted him with the truth about "Roxas" that he understood why.

And when he found out…. The tears began to fall.

* * *

**Oh fyi, I somehow managed to score myself top marks on this :'D**  
**Guess the teacher overlooked the fact that I failed to explain a lot of thing -;**

**Also, in case you were wondering, the part where Axel says; "you really ARE his somebody" is related to what I originally wrote for the part where Axel and Roxas are first introduced to each other, which instead of what was written in the 'official story' I uploaded, was actually: _"So, Roxas huh?" placing his hand on his hip in a cocky manner, the coy red head continued "you don't look like someone who'd be a part of 'the organisation'...aren't you a little too young to be working with big, scary guys like us?"_**  
**_Roxas glared before retorting "I could say the same about you... Where did you come from, the circus?"_**  
**_Axel exaggeratedly held his hands up to his face in a look of mock offense. He was used to this, people had called him a clown on several occasions. He was starting to get sick of it though. Just because he had bright red, extremely spiky hair (for the record, it was his NATURAL colour and it was NATURALLY that spiky), and dark purple, small tear drop tattoos under his eyes, didn't make him look like a clown._**  
**_As the small boy continued glaring at the older man, Axel sighed before walking over to his new partner, ruffling his hair and smiling. "Just kidding shorty, let's go, I've got something to show you" _**

**Which would make more sense, but I wanted to stay more true to the KH Days plot.**  
**Also, the 'miracle' was the fact that Axel started gaining emotions. Not much of a miracle but meh.**


End file.
